Miter saws have been well-known. The miter saw generally has a base unit, a cutting unit, and a support unit. The base unit holds a workpiece to be cut. The cutting unit has a circular saw blade to be driven by a motor. The support unit supports the cutting unit and enables the cutting unit to rotate about a pivot shaft which is substantially parallel to the rotation shaft of the circular saw blade. The support unit is coupled to the base unit so as to incline with respect to the upper surface of the base unit. Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-279933 discloses a miter saw having the above configuration.
In the miter saw in the above publication, the support unit is supported to the base unit at one end thereof, and has a guiding support section on the other end. The support unit has a guide unit. The guide unit consists of two pipes which are supported by a guiding support section at one end thereof and extend in a direction perpendicular to the pivot shaft. A sliding unit is provided at the other end of the guide unit having the pivot shaft. The sliding unit is slidable along the guide unit between a front position and a rear position. The slide of the sliding unit along the guiding units moves the cutting blade in the sliding direction perpendicular to the pivot shaft. If a workpiece is mounted on the upper surface of the base unit and the cutting blade is moved in the sliding direction, the miter saw can cut the workpiece.
In the conventional miter saw, however, the motor is provided above the cutting blade. The miter saw inevitably has a large height. The cutting unit with the motor projects from one side of the cutting blade, while the two pipes are arranged on the other side of the cutting blade. Therefore, the miter saw has a large dimension in the direction of the rotary shaft of the cutting blade. Consequently, it is difficult to minimize the miter saw.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a miter saw which is made compact and has a wide sliding range of the cutting blade along a guide unit to cut a workpiece.